Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
Working and ageing - Cedefop - Europa
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46<br />
<strong>Working</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>ageing</strong><br />
Guidance <strong>and</strong> counselling for mature learners<br />
3.3. The changing world of work<br />
Internal (enterprise) <strong>and</strong> external (societal) labour markets are changing. At<br />
present there are two socioeconomic trends, which mutually complement each<br />
other. Company tenure ( 11 ) is becoming less common for employees (caused<br />
by dismissals, reengineering, outsourcing, etc.) <strong>and</strong> job tenure ( 12 ) is also<br />
decreasing. Thus, a guarantee of a lifelong workplace as well as lifelong<br />
employment in the same job is becoming increasingly unrealistic. Many<br />
traditional workplaces in the blue-collar sector (declining importance of<br />
manufacturing) <strong>and</strong> even in the white-collar sector (such as banking) have<br />
already disappeared or are disappearing. Enterprises are increasingly forced<br />
to produce goods <strong>and</strong> services using fewer <strong>and</strong> fewer employees to remain<br />
competitive. There is a tendency in many enterprises for core employees to<br />
do the regular work, while more discontinuous activities are contracted from<br />
the external labour market (such as temporary workers or employees with a<br />
fixed-term contract). This will dominate employer-employee relationships <strong>and</strong><br />
will have a strong impact on unemployed persons in the future (Booth et al.,<br />
2002; Cappelli <strong>and</strong> Neumark, 2004; Pfeifer, 2005; 2009). The future labour<br />
force will probably consist of:<br />
(a) core employees: a small group of highly qualified experts, technicians <strong>and</strong><br />
managers; <strong>and</strong> a core group of skilled/unskilled employees;<br />
(b) a quantitatively important group of highly qualified external experts, who<br />
will temporarily work for enterprises on a contract basis. This group will<br />
take on many tasks formerly done by middle management;<br />
(c) a temporary labour force of semi-skilled employees for peak times;<br />
(d) short-term unemployed persons;<br />
(e) long-term unemployed persons.<br />
Such a labour force distribution seems ideal from the viewpoint of enterprise<br />
costs. However, just-in-time production going on in enterprises is consistent<br />
with just-in-time work <strong>and</strong>, in many enterprises, even just-in-time training. This<br />
more vulnerable future ʻemployment relationships modelʼ may, however,<br />
disrupt continuity of production of goods <strong>and</strong> services in case of difficulties<br />
(such as supply bottlenecks, shortage of qualified staff). It is just as much in<br />
enterprisesʼ interests to maintain continuity of production of goods <strong>and</strong><br />
services, which implies more or less stable employer-employee relationships.<br />
( 11 ) The German expression is Betriebsbindung.<br />
( 12 ) The German expression is Berufsbindung.